AnandTech provides a detailed analysis of Apple's A7 (ARM-based) mobile processor which was introduced in the iPhone 5s. The latest information and analysis comes from Apple's own code changes to the LLVM Compiler project.

While AnandTech goes into great detail on the architecture of the A7 chip and how it compares to the A6, they conclude that the A7 chip is indeed -- as Apple claimed -- "desktop class" and "the rest of the players in the ultra mobile CPU space didn't aim high enough". In fact, they found that there are almost no iOS apps that take full advantage of the A7 processor. The processor even seems overpowered for the current devices in both RAM bottlenecks and battery consumption.

Qualcomm chief marketing officer originally described the 64-bit A7 as a "marketing gimmick" but Qualcomm later backtracked on that statement. Another Qualcomm employee then said that the 64-bit Apple chip "hit us in the gut."

Quote:

"Not just us, but everyone, really. We were slack-jawed, and stunned, and unprepared. It's not that big a performance difference right now, since most current software won't benefit. But in Spinal Tap terms it's like, 32 more, and now everyone wants it."

Any reference to "desktop class" Apple processors may remind readers that there have been recurring rumors that Apple has been testing ARM processor based MacBook Airs. Apple even threatened that it would stop using Intel chips due to concerns over power consumption. AMD or even ARM were speculated to be possible alternatives.

I think its hilarious that even Apple's old dual core A6 processor in the iPhone 5C from last year's model is on par with current top of the line" hexacore" Android phones like Galaxy S5.

The 64 bit A7 is in a whole 'nother league. Just goes to show how much more advanced iOS and their engineering team is combined with Apple's philosophy of precisely matching software with hardware. My guess is they have big plans for iOS and the A8 chip. Much bigger than just a phone.

Wait! I thought 1GB is more than sufficient and there would be no point in having 2GB of RAM in any iDevice! (At least Apple fanboys state this...)

We were specifically talking about the way in which iOS 6 and iOS 7 runs apps. (Which is to say, one at a time with some exceptions.) More RAM will obviously be needed once iOS expands its capabilities in future versions.

Setting aside your strawman argument, a RAM bottleneck refers to the speed of the RAM, not the amount of memory.

You're totally wrong. A citation from the original article:
"The other problem I see is that although Cyclone is incredibly forward looking, it launched in devices with only 1GB of RAM. It's very likely that you'll run into memory limits before you hit CPU performance limits if you plan on keeping your device for a long time."

That is, it's the (meager, particularly in 64-bit devices) size of the RAM that is the bottleneck, and not the speed of it.

Any reference to "desktop class" Apple processors may remind readers that there have been recurring rumors that Apple has been testing ARM processor based MacBook Airs. Apple even threatened that they would stop using Intel chips due to concerns over power consumption. AMD or even ARM were speculated to be possible alternatives.

"No, the current iPad and iPhones have 1 gig because that's the current sweet spot of cost versus performance. More memory is not free. Doubling it to 2 gig won't make a huge difference, except in very specific situations."

And it's only one example. (I've had a lot of heated discussions with the guy that wrote this, "gaussian blur". I consider him a blind Apple fanboy. In many of his other posts he did state iDevices don't need more than 1GB of RAM.)

I think its hilarious that even Apple's old dual core A6 processor in the iPhone 5C from last year's model is on par with current top of the line" hexacore" Android phones like Galaxy S5.

The 64 bit A7 is in a whole 'nother league. Just goes to show how much more advanced iOS and their engineering team is combined with Apple's philosophy of precisely matching software with hardware. My guess is they have big plans for iOS and the A8 chip. Much bigger than just a phone.

Got any reliable benchmarks to back that up?

A7 is pretty amazing, but as the Qualcomm guy stated in the article, real performance advantage of 64 bit is fairly limited, especially at this point in time. The real benefit of the transition (as shown in the PC space) is being able to address more than 4 GB of of RAM, which the iPhone doesn't currently have.

Also, what the hell does "much bigger than just a phone" even mean?

Honestly, this all just sounds like mindless Apple fanboy crap to me.

Sure, Apple does a lot of great things, and makes some really great product. But don't kid yourself, they're not the only company in the world capable of making great products.